ENGLAND, here we come.

We are leaving for England tomorrow.  We will be back in two weeks. Hopefully I will have some good blog postings. I will try to update it often.  I also signed up on Facebook.  It is under John Horrocks.  I will try my hand at posting pics on there too.  I started playing Farmville on Facebook.  It's fun and addicting.

SNOW!!!!!! SNOW CHAINS!!!!!

Hi Everyone. We finally made it home after 3 weeks on the road.  We made it home once for about 10 hours one Saturday night.  We went to Phoenix, LA, San Fran, Alburquerque, Reno.  I love the desert and the temperature there, so it could have been way worse.  We had our first experience with snow chains.  We were going up Donner Pass on I80 in northern California.  Trucks were lined up along the side of the road putting their chains on, so we stopped and started putting our chains on.  This was our very first time so we didnt really know what we were doing.  Anyway, we were on our second tire, and a CalTrans (California Transportation) truck drove by with a sign saying "Keep going - no chains for 18 miles".  Boy were we relieved.  So about 18 miles up the road, CalTrans was there again, but this time they were checking trucks for chains.  Fortunately as we were approaching, they cancelled the order.  We were VERY lucky!  But, the next day, we had to go back over the pass.  I80 was actually closed most of the afternoon because of an accident.  About midnight, we called the CalTrans number and the road was re-opened.  Since we had an appointment at 7:00 am, we had to go.  We had gone maybe five miles (we were in Nevada at this time, heading west), and a sign was flashing "Chains Required".  Once again, trucks lined along the side of the road.  This time we weren't so lucky.  We had to do "max" chains, which means on 4 tractor tires and 2 trailer tires.  So we did it.  It was John's turn to drive (he hadn't ever driven with chains on), and he said it was actually a lot better driving with the chains.  You can only go about 30 mph with chains on anyway.  It took us about 3 hours to go 100 miles.  Putting chains on is one of the most dirty and dangerous jobs we have ever done.  We are thinking of suggesting it for the Dirty Jobs show on tv.   We also took some ketchup, salt and pepper in case we got stuck and had to start eating each other.  We feel a lot better about this winter driving now, though, so we learned a lot and felt good about it.  Of course, we will never admit that to our dispatcher. Ever.                                                                                                               

Turkey Bowling

Turkey Bowling? What? Crazy! My sister had a 28 pound frozen turkey (she was thawing it to cook for Christmas dinner). She set up 10 water bottles and the idea is to take this 28 pound frozen turkey (still in the wrapper, of course) and slide it like a bowling ball. It was hilarious! I think we might have broken one of the wings. Teresa saw this done on YouTube by grocery store workers, except they had 2 liter soda bottles, a lot of extra time on their hands, and apparently no supervision.

On another subject, I read Stephen King's new book Under the Dome. OMG, it was soooo good. One of his really big fat delicious books. We sat around in Phoenix, AZ for about a day and a half and all I did was read. Poor John was ignored the whole time. Anyway, I give this book 2 thumbs up. Stephen King is the best story-teller! Delicious!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Happy New Year, Everyone!!!!! Any good New Year Resolutions, anyone? I dont like to let myself down, so I never make any.

Texas-size Tumbleweed

We are in Amarillo, TX, again. Drove past the Cadillac Ranch. The temperature is 28 degrees with heavy snow, and we were past the ranch about 7:00 am, so we didnt bother stopping. We are getting loaded with animal parts "not for human consumption". This tumbleweed was in the parking lot. It has since blown away.

I drove in my first snow storm last night. Leaving Albuquerque, NM, I40 goes up a mountain and, of course, that's where the snow was. Luckily we were empty so I didnt have trouble getting up the mountain. The storm lasted about an hour. It is snowing like mad here now, but it is John's turn to drive. We will be spending our New Year's Eve driving. Sounds like a party.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!!!!

FBI Sightings

This story begins before I started driving with John. In the US, the FBI is the Federal Bureau of Investigations. So, if you see the FBI something bad probably just happened. John called me on day and said he was at a truck stop and the FBI was there. I said "Really!?!?" He said, "a F...ing Big Indian." So, now we like to point out our FBI sightings. We have seen, really big, guitars, Abe Lincoln, a teapot, a bowling pin, lots of animals, crosses, angels and many more. So, here are two of our FBI sightings. The fork is in Springfield, MO and the Indian is at a truck stop in Big Cabin, Oklahoma.